VH-GOB Piaggio
P.166
(c/n 400)
<>VH-GOB arrived at
Port Moresby on delivery to Ansett-MAL on May 23, 1961.
It was formally
registered on 5 June
5, and based out of Goroka. It was still in the fleet when
Ansett-MAL became
Ansett Airlines of Papua New
Guinea and received the Ansett group’s new “delta” livery in
1970.
soon after, however, it
left PNG for Adelaide where Motifair, a Melbourne company, was to use it
for survey work. This
company continued to operate it on charter work out of Essendon until
it was
leased to Capital Air
Services, of Wellington, New Zealand, in May 1972. It
returned to Essendon
in September, by which
time its ownership had changed. Ownership was to change a couple
of more
times in quick succession
before it was damaged at Essendon on December 20, 1983, and
removed
from the register.
A year later –GOB was back, with a new owner, Omni Aviation of
Essendon. It
was
to prove a short return and it was struck off again in May 1975.
Fitted out for aerial photographic
surveys, it returned to the register in April 1976 with Control Surveys
Australia, of Sydney, which leased
it to Qasco Aerial Surveys, also of Sydney. Based at Bankstown,
Qasco was to operate -GOB for
about two years until it was offered for sale in mid
1978 . David Carter’s picture of –GOB shows it
at Bankstown in its Qasco
markings in 1977. A new owner was found but not before the
Piaggio had
suffered minor damage at
Bankstown. <>In July 1981, –GOB was struck off the register for
the final time.
Parts started to disappear
from it and it was moved into a graveyard with other derelict
Piaggios. In 1985
it
was dismantled and trucked to the nearby Holsworthy Army Base as a
training aid, where, like much in
the army, it received a coat
of khaki paint. The Historical Aircraft Restoration Society
organised a swap
in
1996 and –GOB was hauled back to Bankstown. In poor
condition, it was eventually donated to the
Bankstown Aviation Museum.